


The Doctor and the Rose

by Lily_Dragon



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Rose is based on a real life princess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 17:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6966568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Dragon/pseuds/Lily_Dragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So you, a simple sailor, would risk punishment from your superiors just to soothe some seasickness?  Hypocrates would be so proud if he could see such a dutiful example of medical practise. Tell me, o selfless Doctor, what is your name?” <br/> “The Doctor? Oh, I love it. You have just named me, princess, so you can call me ‘Doctor.’”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doctor and the Rose

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Rose is heavily based in a real historical figure in this little piece. Any guesses to who it might be? (yes I’m being a total history nerd here and I’m not sorry)

The princess was quite proud of herself for not crying as she boarded the luxurious carriage, keeping a regal bearing and a serene smile on her face as she said her last goodbyes to her father.She was raised to care deeply for her duties as a princess and live up to her title of  _ Her Royal Highness, the Archduchess.  _ If not for propriety’s sake, she did it for her father: his last memory of her wouldn’t be of a puffy, undignified crying face, but the proud and dutiful daughter that he wanted her to be.

Neither common people nor nobles of the Court had been there to watch her leave, but the princess knew every little ounce of composure would be needed to get through the ordeal that awaited her. Not that she wasn’t prepared from infancy to own up to the fate of all young women of nobility. She knew she would be married off to another regal stranger, bound to live out the rest of her life away from her childhood home. But sailing across the ocean to marry royalty in a distant, mysterious land was well beyond anyone’s imagination. 

But now she’s alone in the middle of the night. Her cramped cabin in the hull of a huge foreign ship is far from everything she’d ever known. The princess feels sick as a dog and allows herself to sob openly between bouts of nausea. It had been one week since she had seen the last glimpse of the Old Continent vanish in the horizon, and the chopping, hurling motions of the huge vessel seemed to emphasise the fact that she was sailing further and further away from all she’d ever known. 

So great was her misery that she didn’t notice the door to her cabin being opened until a gruff voice interrupted her train of thought.

“You know, you should stay above deck if you don’t want to be sick… Staying cooped up here will only make it worse.”

She turned around abruptly, the authoritatively appalled look on her face spoiled by the tear tracks on her red face and rumpled hair.

“How dare you come in like this?! Don’t you know who I am?” She starts with a commanding tone, but ends the phrase in an intrigued lilt. In her rush to regain her composure, it took her a few moments to register that he was addressing her in her native language with barely a hint of an accent. 

“You are the lonely girl who spent the last week crying and being sick in her cabin every night.”

She just stares at him, flabbergasted. It takes a moment to seize up the strange man who barged into her room. His garments are rough and simple, with short-cropped hair and tan skin that speak of the hard labour and low birth of a simple sailor. His blue eyes, on the other hand, shine with intelligence, slightly crinkled in defiance, and meet her gaze without any hesitation. And while his accent marks him as a foreigner to her, it’s most definitely a learned one. In all her fascination, she even forgets to be outraged at his words.

“And what do you want here in the middle of the night?”

“To give you this”, he extends his arm towards her, and not even all the curiosity in the world is enough to stop her from taking a step back. Intriguing stranger or no, it is highly inappropriate for her to be touched by a man, let alone a commoner. He raises his eyebrows at her gesture, and deposits a small satchel on her bedstand instead. 

“It’s ginger root, planted quite near your future husband’s domains. Have your maids make you some tea with this root, and your stomach will settle more easily.”

“So you  _ do _ know who I am, and how the captain could have you flogged for the insolence of coming here without being summoned,” once again she tries for a stern tone, but her curiosity has completely overridden the more sensible parts of her mind. “And you just want to give me some medicine for my seasickness?” 

“I patrol this corridor every night, you know - if anything else, doing my job will be more enjoyable if I don’t have to listen to the sounds of your misery,” he shrugs, feigning indifference, but his eyes twinkle with amusement as indignation takes up her features in response to his barb.

“Why, you-” 

“Honestly, I couldn’t stand to hear you every night and do nothing. Since I have no medicine for your sadness, princess, at least I can help you with the other things that ail you.” The sincerity in his voice is so transparent that she has to hold back a fresh bout of tears. Trying to distract her mind, the turns to the enigma in front of her.

“So you would risk punishment from your superiors just to soothe some seasickness?  Hypocrates would be so proud if he could see such a dutiful example of medical practise. Tell me, o selfless Doctor, what is your name?”

“The Doctor? Oh, I love it. You have just named me, princess, and Doctor shall be my name for you.”

“I mean your Christian name, the one that tells me who you are,” she humours him, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“They named me John, because they found me in the gutter on St John’s day. Doesn’t say much about who I am, though. What about you, princess? What is  _ your _ name?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you most certainly know my name.” He was mad, this Doctor man. Completely, utterly insane, and every self-respecting girl should be screaming for the guards. But this most unusual exchange had made her forget about her queasy stomach and homesickness, so she decided to allow herself that. 

“But you were given so many names and titles… Isn’t there one of them that is closer to your heart? Who you were to your family or friends, perhaps?”

“I just left them all behind, half an ocean away by now,” she tries - and fails - to keep the surge of emotion out of her voice. “I’m to become a married woman, take up a new name.” She forces the quiver out of her voice, straightening her back and clenching her fists to keep from shaking. But instead of the pitying look she expected, the strange man just smiled.

“But that’s fantastic! An opportunity to invent a new name for yourself, then. Imagine that, princess, a moment to re-create yourself, to change in a way that will determine how you will be remembered in our History…”

“It would be a great opportunity if I had any choice on it,” for the third time that night, her usually controlled and poised voice failed her, and her tone came across much bitterer than she would ever allow herself to be in public.

“Well, you have a choice now,” he quipped, “you can tell me what you would like to be called, and this shall be your name in my mind.” 

She actually considered his question, and spent the next few seconds in silence. “I never really thought about such a thing. I have no idea what name I would give myself.”

“Well, it’s true that names tend to be given by other people. So since you named me, let me name you after something you love well,” he said, running his eyes through the contents of her cabin. She saw his surprised look as he found her collections of books about Botanics and Geology, trailing his fingers over their covers reverently. So her mysterious man could read. 

“Your geological interest would compel me to name you after an unmovable rock, but there is some softness that makes me want to name you after a flower…,” he grumbled, and she blushed deeply as her sharp ears caught the end of his sentence. He turned his attention to her desk next, ghosting his fingers over unfinished letters until he found her sketches underneath, the paper slightly blotted at some edges when some bout of emotion was unrestrainable while she drew the familiar sights of her childhood home.

“You drew all the plants from memory? This is remarkable!,” he exclaimed. “The details in these rose gardens, I can almost feel like I’m there.”

“This was my favourite spot in the garden…” she reminisced. “I had to commit them to memory, since I imagine there won’t be many Roses where I’m going.”

“Then Rose shall be your name, so there will be at least one of them in the Prince’s Court.”

  
There was a moment of silence as their eyes met each other, candlelight flickering as the ship swayed, something warm and tender and nameless hanging in the distance between them. But a few seconds later Rose averts her eyes demurely, ending this midnight madness and refusing to look at the stranger as he says a short goodbye and leaves. 

**Author's Note:**

> So @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad gave me some interesting Nine x Rose AU prompts, including this one: 
> 
> "Second idea is a royalty AU. I loooove royalty aus so much, I can’t even tell you! My personal take on it would be that Rose is the princess/queen/countess etc. She’s the noble woman. And Nine is either a knight/warrior or just a simple working man. In any case, he’s battered and a bit broken and in love with her, but doesn’t think it could ever happen. Rose obviously has duties towards her family and her title, but she wants to be with him."
> 
> Then I remembered the life of a very sad, real life princess and how she was this remarkable and intelligent person, and I couldn’t help drawing some parallels… And here it is. This might stand alone, this might be one chapter in a short story and this might be a huge history nerdgasm waiting to happen because I have the whole thing ready in my mind...
> 
> We'll see :)


End file.
